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This story is taken from an interview with Thomas Nutt at the 2nd Batt RIR event, Campbell College, and has been added to the site with their permission. The authors fully understand the site's terms and conditions. The interviewer was Bruce Logan.
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I served in the RAF from 1941, May 1941, until Xmas Day 1946 before I was finally demobbed. From the time I was trained as electrical and wireless mechanic, in Cranwell in Luton, England. I served in a squadron of Beauforts and Beaufighters in Exeter for a few months. But in 1943 I was made to go overseas.

I went overseas to India, where of course we didn’t know where we were going. We got tropical kit, so we assumed we were either going to somewhere in Africa or the far east. So when we stopped at Durban for a few days and boarded ship again, we knew for sure we were heading for the Far East. So we arrived in Bombay. We had to travel in those days round the cape, because the Suez canal was closed to shipping. We arrived, it took 7 weeks from when we left Liverpool to arrived in Bombay. And of course no troops were needed in Bombay, we were all required in the far side of India towards Burma. We then crossed India by train to Calcutta. Which took another 7 days. Very very slow train.

We arrived in Calcutta, and we were told that we were going up to Burma for Air Support Control. Then we found out that that had been overrun by the Japanese, and we were then had to form a new Air Support Control, 23 Air Support Control. That was to a wireless unit, a small unit, to take up passengers from the Army, who were in Burma, the Chindits, to relay messages to the RAF Transport Command, to drop supplies to various sites. That again, we were overrun and cut off again in 43, and had to make our own way back through the Maga Hills into India. We arrived back in the Transit Camp in Calcutta, and I was posted to 31 squadron RAF Transport, and I spent the rest of my time in the services in 31 squadron transport. That meant I was flying all over India and Burma, and it was a very interesting time. And sometimes we would be outside Calcutta and Dum-Dum, then we’d probably go to one of the smaller places like Pegham or somewhere on the Burma border. And occasionally we’d go forward to somewhere like Agatala, or some of the other airstrips in that area.

We were due to go home in June 1945 … May 46. But Mahatma Ghandi was then causing quite a lot of trouble in India. It was, he wasn’t causing trouble but his followers were, and they decided to cancel all home leave. I can tell you, it was a very disappointing time. But, there was a question asked in the House of Commons in London about this, and within 1 month we were on the boat going back home. This time we came back through the Suez Canal, which was open. We arrived in Liverpool, I suppose it probably was beginning of July 1946. I came home for a long leave, and finished off my time at Bishop’s court, which was a station in NI.

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